Apples from pips

[Four Cofffee]

How easy are trees to grow from a pip, and how would you do it (e.g. what compost and conditions?)?

Normally I might just buy a grafted tree but a friend has given me some pips from the tree Sir Issac Newton allegedly say under at Woolthorpe Manor during his 'gravity' moment and I thought it would be great to try to grown from these. Apparently the actual tree blew down about 150 years ago but has since sprouted from the old roots and is giving apples again. My seeds are still in an apple at the moment so may be a bit immature and need to be let to ripen a bit?

[Simpo Two]

Modern apple trees are grafted (the actual variety is only the top bit) so won't breed true from the rootstock. However as it's already been through this phase, even if it was grafted anyway, you have nothing to lose - plant and be damned!

[tonyvid]

Yep, pips should work - just look at all those apple trees that sprout along the sides of roads from bunged apple cores!! Good luck

[Dave_ST220]

Got 3 in my garden now that i did from pips. They are about 7ft tall now but do not blossom. Compost in small pot on window sill in sunshine for a year, then planted outside. I don't think you will get apples from them.

[Simpo Two]

Dave_ST220 said:

Got 3 in my garden now that i did from pips. They are about 7ft tall now but do not blossom.

Yep, I think you've got three rootstocks there - they have names like MM106, M7 etc, depending on vigour. (MM stands for Malling Merton in case you were wondering: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malling_series )

[Dave_ST220]

It was still fun doing it, i have since applied mistletoe which has taken nicely, i'll be a multi millionaire from the crop in about 50 years

[pmanson]

At my parents old house there are two trees that were grown from pips...

Considering we did when I was about 5 and i'm now 26 I think it took about 10-15 years for any fruit to appear

[Parrot of Doom]

It makes me wonder why we don't have more natural orchards. Apple, pear, and cherry trees, perhaps. There's plenty of land doing nothing where they could be grown.

[Simpo Two]

Parrot of Doom said:

It makes me wonder why we don't have more natural orchards. Apple, pear, and cherry trees, perhaps. There's plenty of land doing nothing where they could be grown.

There used to be, but orchards have been grubbed out ferociously over the last few decades - either because the value as building land is higher, or because Joe Farmer couldn't make a living. However, we seem to be able to fly apples in from every corner of the globe, which I find ridiculous.

[Shaolin]

Apples from pips are almost invariably hardly worth having. They may produce a nice tree though, just don't expect much in the way of tasty fruit - better to get a named grafted variety for that. The exception to this is the Cox's Orange Pippin which was raised from a seed from another variety (in the mid 1800's I think) and is easily the most popular variety of apple in Britain - a rare fortuitous accident.

I agree about why they are flown from anywhere else. Britain has the best climate in the world for growing apples, we have the best varieties and they grow here better than anywhere else. I almost disowned my eldest son in the supermarket a while ago for wanting to buy French Golden Delicious, while the first part may be true, it has to be the most inappropriately named fruit ever - a sort of dull greeny/yellow and taste like cotton woll with a bit of faint apple essence.

[Parrot of Doom]

Its just there is so much unused land where you could bung a load of these fruit trees. Right not far from me for instance, land that will never be used:

http://maps.google.co.uk/?ie=UTF8&ll=53.468086...

You could buy a job lot, say 500 trees, plant them, and leave them be. I don't see why we can't do this across the country.

[Simpo Two]

Parrot of Doom said:

You could buy a job lot, say 500 trees, plant them, and leave them be. I don't see why we can't do this across the country.

Perhaps the supermarket's demand for perfection and just-in-time delivery have destroyed the home industry?

[Parrot of Doom]

I wasn't thinking about an industry, more as a nice thing to do. I bet a job lot of saplings would only cost a couple of quid each?

[Simpo Two]

Parrot of Doom said:

I wasn't thinking about an industry, more as a nice thing to do. I bet a job lot of saplings would only cost a couple of quid each?

Oh well that's fine, I thought you were planning to make a living from it. 'Apple of Doom'...

[Dave_ST220]

The new build i am moving to has an orchard planted & they are on about alotments-return to common sense? They aren't these hippy houses either-proper brick, apparently "eco" because they have low energy bulbs & wooden windows!

[Four Cofffee]

Lets' now hope we haven't eaten said prize apple my mistake!

[baptistsan]

Not a problem if you have. Just plant the households faeces for the next week


on a serious note, I think it's pretty cool, you will have your own Newton tree in your back yard!